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THE 

|MES5AQE 

OF 

CHRISTIANITY 

gro OTHER 

RELIGIONS 



^V3 



{EV. JAMES S. DENNIS, D.D. 



FLEMING H. 
REVELL COMPANY 
PUBLISHERS 

NEW YORK 

CHICAQO 

TORONTO 




1 



FOREIGN MISSIONS . . . 
AFTER A CENTURY 

BY REV. JAMES S. DENNIS D.D. 
12 mo., cloth $1.50 

It will comprise six lectures delivered before the Prince- 
ton Theological Seminary during last Spring, being the 
first course of the recently established Students Lectures 
on Missions. The Lectures are: 

ist. The Present-Day Message of Foreign Missions to the 
Church. 

2nd. The Present-Day Meaning of the Macedonian 
Vision. 

3rd, The Present-Day Conflicts of the Foreign Fields. 

4th. The Present-Day Problems of Theory and Method 
in Missions. 

5th. The Present-Day Controversies of Christianity with 
Opposing Religions. 

6th. The Present-Day Summary of Success. 

^*5^ Sent post free on receipt 0/ price. 

Fleming H. Revell Company 
new york chicago toronto 



PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 



THE MESSAGE OF CHRISTI- 
ANITY TO OTHER RELIGIONS 

'9 



y 



/ 

BY REV. JAMES S. DENNIS D.D. 

Of the Presbyterian Mission, Beirut^ Syria, Student's Lec- 
turer on Missions, Princeton Iheological Seminary^ Au- 
thor of Foreign Missions after a Century, 




l/yH(' 



Fleming H. Re veil Company, New York, Chicago, 
Toronto, Publishers of Evangelical Literature. 






Entered according to Act of Con ress, in the year 1893, 
byFleming H. Revell Company, in the office of the 
LibrarianofCongress, at Washington. 



THE MESSAGE OF CHRISTl- 
/VNITY TO OTHER RELIGIONS. 

Christianity speaks in the name of God. 

To Him it owes its existence, and the deep 

secret of its dignity and power is that it reveals 

Him. It would be effrontery for it to speak 

simply upon its own responsibility or even 

m the name of reason. It has no naturalistic 

philosophy of its own evolution to propound. 

It has a message from God to deliver. 

It is not itself a philosophy; it is a religion. 

It is not earth-born; it is God-wrought. It 

comes not from man, but from God, and is 

intensely alive with His power, alert with His 

love, benign with His goodness, radiant with 

His light, charged with His truth, sent with 

His message, inspired with His energy, regnant 

with His wisdom, instinct with the gift of 

spiritual healing, and mighty with supreme 

authority. 

5 



(j THE MESSAGE OF CHRISTIANITY 

It has a mission among men whenever 
or wherever it finds them, which is as sub- 
lime as creation, as marvelous as spiritual 
existence and, as full of mysterious meaning 
as eternity. It finds its focus and as well its 
radiating center in the personality of Jesus 
Christ, its great Revealer and Teacher, to 
whom before His advent all the fingers of light 
pointed, and from whom since His incarnation 
all the brightness of the day has shone. It 
has a further and supplemental historic basis 
in the Holy Scriptures which God has been 
pleased to give through inspired writers chosen 
and commissioned by Him. Its message is 
much more than Judaism ; it is infinitely more 
than the revelation of nature; it is even more 
than the best teachings of all other religions 
combined, for whatever is good and true in 
other religious systems is found in full and 
authoritative form in Christianity. It has 
wrought in love, with the touch of regenera- 
tion, with the inspiration of prophetic vision, 
in the mastery of spiritual control, and by the 
transforming power of the divine indwelling, 
until its own best evidence is what it has done 



TO OTHER RELIGIONS 



to uplift and purify wherever it has been 
welcomed among men. 

I say welcomed, for Christianity must be 
received in order to accomplish its mission. 
It is addressed to the reason and the heart of 
man, but does no violence to liberty. Its 
limitations are not in its own nature, but in 
the freedom which God has planted in man. 
It is not to be judged, therefore, by what it 
has achieved in the world, except as the world 
has voluntarily received it. The sins of Chris- 
tian nations cannot be rightly charged to 
Christianity, for it does not sanction but for- 
bids them. So-called Christian nations some- 
times do frightfully un-Christian things, or at 
least allow them to be done, and for this they 
will be called to give an account by the God 
of justice and judgment. Where Christianity 
is not known, or where it has been ignore 
and rejected, it withholds the evidence of its 
power, but where it has been accepted it does 
not shrink from the test but rather triumphs 
in its achievements. Its attitude towards man- 
kind is marked by gracious urgency, not com- 
pulsion; by gentle condescension, not pride; 



8 THE MESSAGE OF CHRISTIANITY 

by kindly ministry, not harshness; by faithful 
warning, not taunting reproaches; by plain 
instruction, not argument; by gentle and quiet 
command, not noisy harangue; by limitless 
promises to faith, not spectacular gifts to sight. 

It has a message of supreme import to man, 
fresh from the heart of God. It records the 
great spiritual facts of human history, it an- 
nounces the perils and needs of man, it reveals 
the mighty resources of redemiption, it solves 
the problems and blesses the discipline of life, 
it teaches the whole secret of regeneration 
and hope and moral triumph, it brings to the 
world the co-operation of divine wisdom in 
the great struggle with the dark mysteries of 
misery and suffering. Its message to the 
world is so full of quickening inspiration, so 
resplendent with light, so charged with power, 
so effective in its ministry that its mission can 
be characterized only by the use of the most 
majestic symbolism of the natural universe. 
It is indeed, as revealed in the person of its 
founder, the " Sun of righteousness arising with 
healing in his wings." 

We are asked now to consider the message 



TO OTHER RELIGIONS 



of Christianity to other religions. If it has a 
message to a sinful world, it must also have a 
message to other religions which are seeking 
to minister to the same fallen race and to 
accomplish in their own way and by diverse 
methods the very mission God has designed 
should be Christianity's privilege and high 
function to discharge. 

Let us seek now to catch the spirit of that 
message and to indicate in brief outline its 
purport. We must be content simply to give 
the message; the limits of this paper forbid 
any attempt to vindicate it, or to demonstrate 
its historic integrity, its heavenly wisdom, and 
its excellent glory. 

THE SPIRIT OF THE MESSAGE. 

Its spirit is full of simple sincerity, exalted 
dignity, and sweet unselfishness. It aims to 
impart a blessing, rather than to challenge a 
comparison. It is not so anxious to vindicate 
itself as to confer its benefits. It is not so 
solicitous to secure supreme honor for itself as 
to win its way to the heart. It does not seek 
to taunt, or disparage, or' humiliate a rival, 



10 THE MESSAGE OF CHRISTIANITY 

but rather to subdue by love, attract by its 
own excellence, and supplant by virtue of its 
own incomparable superiority. It is itself 
incapable of a spirit of rivalry, because of its 
own invincible right to reign. It has no use 
for a sneer, it can dispense with contempt, it 
carries no weapons of violence, it is not given 
to argument, it is incapable of trickery or 
deceit, and it repudiates cant. It relies ever 
upon its own intrinsic merit, and bases all its 
claims upon its right to be heard and honored. 
Its miraculous evidence is rather an excep- 
tion than a rule. It was a sign to help weak 
faith. It was a concession made in a spirit 
of condescension. Miracles suggest mercy 
quite as much as they announce majesty. 
When we consider the unlimited scope of 
divine power, and the ease with which signs 
and wonders might have been multiplied in 
bewildering variety and impressiveness, we are 
conscious of a rigid conservation of power and 
a distinct repudiation of the spectacular. The 
mystery of Christian history is the sparing 
way in which Christianity has used its re- 
sources. It is a tax upon faith which is often 



TO OTHRR RELIGIONS 11 

painfully severe to note the apparent lack of 
energy and dash and resistless force in the 
seemingly slow advances of our holy religion. 

Doubtless God has His reasons, but in the 
meanwhile we cannot but recognize in Chris- 
tianity a spirit of mysterious reserve, of mar- 
velous patience, of subdued undertone, of 
purposeful restraint. It does not '*cry nor lift 
up, nor cause its voice to be heard in the 
street." Centuries come and go and Chris- 
tianity touches only portions of the earth, but 
wherever it touches it transfigures. It seems 
to despise material adjuncts, and to count 
only those victories worth having which are 
won through direct spiritual contact with the 
individual soul. Its relations to other religions 
has been characterized by singular reserve, 
and its progress has been marked by an unos- 
tentatious dignity, which is in harmony with 
the majestic attitude of God its author, to all 
false gods who have claimed divine honors 
and sought to usurp the place which was His 
alone. 

Christianity is said to be intolerant. I do 
not think the word is well chosen; it would be 



12 THE MESSAGE OF CHRISTIANITY 

more true to say that Christianity is uncom- 
promising, and it is uncompromising because 
it is true. It is as absurb to complain of the 
uncompromising nature of Christianity as it is 
to speak contemptuously of the inflexible 
character of natural law. Christianity at the 
same time that it is uncompromising, is toler- 
ant of the convictions of others in a kindly 
and generous spirit, and if true to itself it 
would be the last religion in the world to stifle 
liberty of conscience, or deny all proper free- 
dom of speech. I regard the tolerance, 
patience and meekness of Christianity in this 
Parliament as simply sublime. God give us 
wisdom and grace to maintain them to the 
end. Its tolerance should ever be marked by 
gentleness, patience and courtesy; its exclu- 
siveness should be characterized by dignity, 
magnanimity and charity. It should be the 
steel hand of truth encased in the velvet glove 
of love. 

We are right then in speaking of the spirit 
of this message as wholly free from the 
commonplace sentiment of rivalry, entirely 
above the use of spectacular or meretricious 



TO OTHER RELIGIONS 13 

methods, infinitely removed from all mere 
device or dramatic effect, wholly free from 
cant or double facedness, with no anxiety for 
alliance with worldly power or social eclat, 
caring more for a place of influence in an 
humble heart than for a seat of power on a 
royal throne, wholly intent upon claiming the 
loving allegiance of the soul, and securing the 
moral transformation of charcter, in order 
that its own spirit and principles may sway 
the spiritual life of men. 

It speaks then to other religions with un- 
qualified frankness and plainness based upon 
its incontrovertible claim to a hearing; it has 
nothing to conceal, but rather invites to in- 
quiry and investigation; it recognizes promptly 
and cordially whatever is worthy of respect 
in other religious systems; it acknowledges 
the undoubted sincerity of personal conviction 
and the intense and pathetic earnestness of 
moral struggle in the case of many serious 
souls who, like the Athenians of old, "wor- 
ship in ignorance ;'' it warns and persuades and 
commands as is its right; it speaks as Paul 
did in the presence of cultured heathenism on 



14 THE MESSAGE OF CHRISTIANITY 

Mars Hill, of that appointed day in which the 
world must be judged and of "that man" by 
whom it is to be judged; it echoes and re- 
echoes its invariable and inflexible call to re- 
pentance; it requires acceptance of its moral 
standards, and exacts submission, loyalty, 
reverence, and humility. 

All this it does with a superb and un- 
wavering tone of quiet insistence. It often 
presses its claim with argument, appeal, and 
tender urgency, yet in it all and through it all 
would be recognized a clear, resonant, predom- 
inant tone of uncompromising insistence, re- 
vealing that supreme personal will which origi- 
nated Christianity, and in whose name it ever 
speaks. It delivers its message with an air 
of untroubled confidence and quiet mastery. 
There is no anxiety about precedence, no undue 
care for externals, no apology for mysteries, no 
bargaining for compliments, no possibility of 
being patronized, no undignified spirit of com- 
petition. It speaks rather with the conscious- 
ness of that simple, natural, incomparable, 
measureless supremacy which quickly disarms 
rivalry, and in the end challenges the admi- 



TO OTHER RELIGIONS 15 



ration and compels the submission of hearts 
free from malice and guile. 

THE PURPORT OF THE MESSAGE. 

This being the spirit of the message let us 
inquire as to its purport. There is one im- 
mensely preponderating element here which 
pervades the whole content of the message — 
it is love for man. Christianity is full of it. 
This is its supreme meaning to the world — 
not that love eclipses or shadows every other 
attribute in God's character, but that it glori- 
fies and more perfectly reveals and interprets 
the nature of God and the history of His deal- 
ings with man. The object of this love must 
be carefully noted — it is mankind — the race 
considered as individuals or as a whole. 
Christianity unfolds a message to other relig- 
ions which emphasizes this heavenly principle. 
It reveals therein the secret of its power and 
the unique wonder of its whole redemptive 
system. "Never man spake like this man," 
was said of Christ. Never religion spake like 
this religion, may be said of Christianity. 

The Christian system is conceived in love; it 



16 THE MESSAGE OF CHRISTIANITY 

is wrought out by love ; it brings the provision 
of love to fallen man; it administers its mar- 
velous functions in love; it introduces man 
into an atmosphere of love; it gives him the 
inspiration, the joy, the fruition of love; it 
leads at last into the realm of eternal love. 
While accomplishing this end, at the same 
time it convicts of sin, it melts into humility, 
it quickens gratitude, it purifies and sanctifies 
the heart, it glorifies the character, it inspires 
to obedience, it implants the instincts of 
service, it introduces a regenerating agent into 
social life, it teaches unselfishness as the great 
lesson of heaven to earth, and it proposes 
love as itself the supreme remedy for the 
woes and wrongs of the w^orld. It has also 
its message of warning and judgment, which 
must not be ignored. It speaks in the name 
of justice, holiness, and eternal sovereignty of 
the final issue of that folly which rejects its 
proposals and appeals, and defies its authority. 
In this it also reveals God and vindicates His 
honor, and it is sadly true that he who slights 
its message of love must finally face its sen- 
tence of condemnation. 



TO OTHER RELIGIONS 17 

Let us look at this message more in detail. 
In presenting it under present auspices our 
purpose is not so distinctively controversial as 
declarative. We do not seek to challenge or 
rebuke, much less to denounce and condemn 
other religions, but rather to unfold in calm 
statement the essential features of the message 
which Christianity is charged to deliver. 
This is not the place or time to sit in judg- 
ment; it is rather an opportunity for each re- 
ligion to unfold its distinctive tenets, and de- 
clare its innermost secrets of wisdom and 
spiritual helpfulness to man in that spirit of 
courtesy which is becoming in what may be 
regarded as a conference upon comparative 
religion. We who love and revere Christi- 
anity believe that it declares the whole counsel 
of God, and we are content to rest our case 
upon the simple statement of its historic facts, 
it spiritual teaching, audits unrivalled minis- 
try to the world. Christianity is its own best 
evidence; its very presence is full of power; its 
spiritual contribution to the thought of the 
world is its supreme credential; its exempli- 
fication in the life of its Founder, and, to a less 



18 THE MESSAGE OF CHRISTIANITY 

conspicuous degree of all who are truly in His 
likeness, is its unanswerable demonstration. 
I have sought to give the essential outlines 
of this immortal message of Christianity by 
grouping its leading characteristics in a series 
of code words which when presented in com- 
bination give the distinctive signal of the 
Christian religion which has waved aloft in 
sunshine and storm during all the centuries 
since the New Testament Scriptures were 
given to man. 

FATHERHOOD. 

The initial word which we place in this 
signal code of Christianity is Fatherhood, 
This may have a strange sound to some ears, 
but to the Christian it is full of sweetness and 
dignity. It simply ^means that the creative 
act of God, so far as our human family is con- 
cerned, was done in the spirit of fatherly love 
and goodness. He created us in His likeness, 
and to express this idea of spiritual resem- 
blance and tender relationship the symbolical 
term of fatherhood is used. When Christ 
taught us to pray, "Our Father,'' in the spirit 



TO OTHER RELIGIONS 19 



not only of natural but of gracious sonship, 
He gave us a lesson which transcends human 
philosophy and has in it so much of the 
height and depth of divine feeling that human 
reason has hardly dared to fully receive, much 
less to originate, the conception. 

BROTHERHOOD. 

A second word which is representative in 
the Christian message is, Brotherhood. This 
exists in two senses — there is the universal 
brotherhood of man to man, as children of 
one Father in whose likeness the whole family 
is created, and the spiritual brotherhood of 
union in Christ. We are all brother men, 
would that we were also all brother Christians. 
Here again the suggestion is love as the rule 
and sign of human as well as Christian fellow- 
ship. The world has drifted far away from 
this ideal of brotherhood; it has been repudi- 
ated in some quarters even in the name of 
religion, and it seems clear that it will never 
be fully recognized and exemplified except as 
the spirit of Christ assumes its sway over the 
hearts of men. 



20 THE MESSAGE OF CHRISTIANITY 

REDEMPTION. 

The next code word of Christianity is Re- 
demption. We use it here in the sense of a 
purpose on God's part to deHver man from 
sin, and to make a universal provision for that 
end, which if rightly used insures the result. 
I need not remind you that this purpose is 
conceived in love. God as Redeemer has 
taken a gracious attitude towards man from 
the beginnings of history, and He is "not far 
from every one" in the immanence and omni- 
presence of His love. Redemption is a world- 
embracing term; it is not limited to any age 
or class. Its potentiality is world-wide; its 
efficiency is unrestrained, except as man him- 
self limits it; its application it determined by 
the sovereign wisdom of God, its Author, who 
deals with each individual as a possible can- 
didate for redemption, and decides his destiny 
in accordance with his spiritual attitude to- 
wards Christ. Where Christ is unknown God 
still exercises His sovereignty, although He 
has been pleased to maintain a significant re- 
serve as to the possibility, extent, and spirit- 
ual tests of redemption where trust is based 



TO OTHER RELIGIONS 21 

upon God's mercy in general, rather than 
upon His mercy as specially revealed in Christ. 
We know from His Word that Christ's sacri- 
fice is infinite. God can apply its saving 
benefits to one who intelligently accepts it in 
faith, or to an infant who receives its benefits 
as a sovereign gift, or to one who not having 
known of Christ so casts himself upon God's 
mercy that divine wisdom sees good reason to 
exercise the prerogative of compassion and 
apply to the soul the saving power of the 
great sacrifice. 

INCARNATION. 

Another cardinal idea in the Christian sys- 
tem is hicarnation, God clothing Himself in 
human form and coming into living touch 
with mankind. This He did in the person of 
Jesus of Nazareth. It is a mighty mystery, 
and Christianity would never dare assert it 
except as God has taught her its truth. 
Granted the purpose of God to reveal Him- 
self in visible form to man. He must be free 
to choose His own method. He did not con- 
sult human reason. He did not ask the advice 
of philosophy. He did not seek the permis- 



22 THE MESSAGE OF CHRISTIANITY 

sion of ordinary laws. He came in His 
spiritual chariot in the glory of the super- 
natural, but He entered the realm of human 
life through the humble gateway of nature. 
He came not only to reveal God, but to bring 
Him into contact with human life. He came 
to assume permanent relations to the race. 
His brief life among us upon earth was for a 
purpose, and when that was acccomplished, 
still retaining His humanity, He ascended to 
assume His kingly dominion in the heavens. 

ATONEMENT. 

We are brought now to another funda- 
mental truth in the Christian message — ^the 
mysterious doctrine of Atonement, Sin is a 
fact which is indisputable. It is universally 
recognized and acknowledged. It is its own 
evidence. It is moreover, a barrier between 
man and his God. The divine holiness and 
sin with its loathsomeness, its rebellion, its 
horrid degradation, and its hopeless ruin, 
cannot coalesce in any system of moral govern- 
ment. God cannot tolerate sin or temporize 
with it, or make a place for it in His presence. 



i 



TO OTHER REUFIONS 23 

He cannot parley with it; He must punish it. 
He cannot treat with it; He must try it at the 
bar. He cannot overlook it; He must over- 
come it. He cannot give it a moral status; 
He must visit it with the condemnation it 
deserves. x\tonement is God's marvelous 
method of vindicating once for all before the 
universe His eternal attitude towards sin, by 
the voluntary self-assumption in the spirit of 
sacrifice of its penalty. This He does in the 
person of Jesus Christ, who came as God 
incarnate upon this sublime mission. The 
facts of Christ's birth, life, death, and resur- 
rection, take their place in the realm of ver- 
itable history, and the moral value and 
propitiatory efficacy of His perfect obedience 
and sacrificial death in a representative 
capacity become a mysterious element of 
limitless worth in the process of readjusting 
the relation of the sinner to His God. Christ 
is recognized by God as a substitute. The 
merit of His obedience and the exalted 
dignity of His sacrifice are both available to 
faith. The sinner, humble, penitent, and 
conscious of unworthiness, accepts Christ as 



24 THE MESSAGE OF CHRISTIANITY 

his Redeemer, his Mediator, his Intercessor, 
his Saviour, and simply believes in Him, trust- 
ing in His assurances and promises, based as 
they are upon His atoning intervention, and 
receives from God as the gift of sovereign love 
all the benefits of Christ's mediatorial work. 
This is God's way of reaching the goal of 
pardon and reconciliation. It is His way of 
being Himself just, and yet accomplishing the 
justification of the sinner. Here again we 
have the mystery of love in its most intense 
form, and the mystery of wisdom in its most 
august exemplification. This is the heart of 
the Gospel. It throbs with mysterious love; 
it pulsates with ineffable throes of divine feel- 
ing; it bears a vital relation to the whole 
scheme of government; it is in its hidden 
activities beyond the scrutiny of human reason, 
but it sends the life blood coursing through 
history, and it gives to Christianity its superb 
vitality and its undying vigor. It is because 
Christianity eliminates sin from the problem 
that its solution is complete and final. 

CHARACTER. 

We pass now to another word of vital im- 



TO OTHER RELIGIONS 25 



port — it is Character. God's own attitude to 
the sinner being settled and the problems of 
moral government solved, the next matter 
which presents itself is the personality of the 
individual man. It must be purified, trans- 
formed into the spiritual likeness of Christ, 
trained for immortality. It must be brought 
into harmony with the ethical standards of 
Christ. This Christianity insists upon, and 
for the accomplishment of this end it is gifted 
with an influence and impulse, a potency and 
winsomeness, an inspiration and helpfulness, 
which is full of spiritual mastery over the soul. 
Herein is hidden the secret of the new birth 
by the Spirit of God. Christianity thus re- 
generates, uplifts, transforms, and eventu ally 
transfigures the personal character. It is an 
incomparable school of transcendent ethics. 
It honors the rugged training of discipline, 
and uses it freely but tenderly. It accom- 
plishes its purpose by exacting obedience, by 
teaching submission, by helping to self-con- 
trol, by insisting upon practical righteousness 
as a rule of life, and by introducing the Golden 
Rule as the law of contact and duty between 
man and man. 



26 THE MESSAGE OF CHRISTIANITY 

SERVICE. 

In vital connection with character is a word 
of magnetic impulse and unique glory which 
gives to Christianity a sublime, practical 
power in history. It is Service. Here is a 
forceful element in the double influence of 
Christianity over the inner life and the out- 
ward ministry of its followers. Christ, its 
Founder, glorified service and lifted it in His 
own experience to the dignity of sacrifice. In 
the light of Christ's example service becomes 
an honor, a privilege, and a moral triumph; 
it is consummated and crowned in sacrifice. 
Christianity, receiving its lesson from Christ, 
subsidizes character in the interest of service. 
It lays its noblest fruitage of personal gifts 
and spiriutal culture upon the altar of philan- 
thropic beneficence. It is unworthy of its 
name if it does not reproduce this spirit of its 
Master; only by giving itself to benevolent 
ministry as Christ gave Himself for the world 
can it vindicate its origin. Christianity recog- 
nizes no worship which is altogether divorced 
from work for the weal of others. It endorses 
no religious professions which are unmindful 



TO OTHER RELIGIONS 27 



of the obligations of service; it allows itself 
to be tested not simply by the purity of its 
motives but by the measure of its sacrifice. 
The crown and the goal of its followers is, 
"Well done, good and faithful servant." 

FELLOWSHIP. 

One other word completes the code. It is 
Fellowship, of which the Spirit of God is the 
blessed medium. It is a word which breathes 
the sweetest hope, suggests the choicest 
privilege, and sounds the highest destiny of 
the Christian. It gives the grandest possible 
meaning to eternity, for it suggests that it is 
to be passed with God. It illumines and 
transfigures the present, for it brings God into 
it, and places Him in living touch with our 
lives, and makes Him a helper in our moral 
struggles, our spiritual aspirations, and our 
heroic though imperfect efforts to live the life 
of duty. It is solace in trouble, consolation 
in sorrow, strength in weakness, courage in 
trial, help in weariness, and cheer in loneli- 
ness; it becomes an unfailing inspiration 
when human nature left to its own resources 



28 THE MESSAGE OF CHRISTIANITY 

would lie down in despair and die. Fellow- 
ship with God implies and secures fellowship 
with each other in a mystical spiritual union 
of Christ with His people and His people with 
each other. An invisible society of regenerate 
souls, which we call the Kingdom of God 
among men, is the result. This has its visible 
product in the organized society of the Chris- 
tian Church, which is the chosen and honored 
instrument of God for the conservation and 
propagation of Christianity among men. 

This then, is the message which Christianity 
signals to other religions as it greets them to- 
day: FATHERHOOD, BROTHERHOOD, REDEMP- 
TION, INCARNATION, ATONEMENT, CHARACTER, 
SERVICE, FELLLOWSHIP. 

It remains to be said that Christianity 
through the individual seeks to reach society. 
Its aim is first the man, then men. It is 
pledged to do for the race what it does for 
the individual man. Its plans are elastic, 
expansive, inclusive; it preempts the round 
earth as its sphere of activity; it ignores no 
class or rank; it forgets no tribe or nation; 
it is charged to minister in God's name to the 



TO OTHER RELIGIONS 29 

world. It is commissioned, aye, commanded 
by its great Founder to disciple all nations. 
In this service it blesses and is blessed; in 
this ministry it uplifts and is itself uplifted; 
in the accomplishment of this noble mission 
it will finally be forever vindicated and 
crowned. 



WORKS BY REV. F. B. MEYER. 

*' Few hooks of recent years are better adapted to instruct and 
help Christians than those of this author. He is a man *■ mighty 
in the Scriptures,' saturated with Bible facts ayid truths and 
possessed with a yearning desire to help others.'"—!). !,. Moody 

OLD TESTAMENT HEROES. 

**His subjects are treated in a broad and scholarly way, and 
yet a reverent and religious spirit marks his whole work. 

— Sunday School Journal. 

"We have learned with not a few others to take up with 
eagerness whatever bears the name of this 2i^JithQv.''— Standard. 

Abraham; or, the Obedience of Faith |r.oo 

Israel: A Prince with God i.oo 

Joseph: Beloved— Hated— Kxal ted i.oo 

Hoses. The Man of God i.oo 

Elijah and the Secret of his Power.- i.oo 

"No writer of the present day is imbued with the spirit of 
the gospel more completetely than Mr. Meyer, and as Spurgeon 
observed 'he is a great gain to the armies of evangelical truth.' 
The expositions are in the form of brief discourses, bright in 
tone, beautiful in rhetoric, simple in style, sound in doctrine, 
practical in aim and endued with spiritual power.'" ^./^utheran, 

THE EXPOSITORY SERIES. 
Tried By Fire. Expositions of the First Epistle of 

Peter fi.oo 

The Life and Light of Men. Expositions from 

the Gospel of John, |i.oo 

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE SERIES. 

**I do not know of any writer whose works on 'The Ivife 
More Abundant' I could more hear'ily recommend than those 
of Mr. Meyer." — I^ev. B. Fay Mills, 

Christian Living | .50 

•'A small book, but mighty in power."— /w/^rror. 

The Present Tenses of the Blessed Life % .50 

"A little book we warmly commend to all Christian people." 
— FfancesE. Willardin The Union Signal. 

The Shepherd Psalm | .50 

"Worth its weight in ^o\A.''— Central Baptist. 

The Future Tenses of the Blessed Life % .50 

ENVELOPE SERIES OF BOOKLETS. 

Two packets, each containing twelve different book- 
lets. Per dozen, 20c.; per hundred J1.50 

CHOICB EXTRACTS from writings of F. B. Meyer, com- 
piled by Rev. B. Fay Mills. 48 pages. 5c. each; 35c. per dox, 

cHioAQo. Fleming H. Revell Company, new yob*. 



WORKS BY DR. A. J. GORDON. 

Dr. Gordon is a writer 7uith whom to differ is better and mart 
:iuggestive than to agree with some others. He loves the truth, 
he gives his readers much that is true and deeply of the essence oj 
Chyistia7ity.—TnK Independent. 

The Holy Spirit in Missions. i2mo., cloth, gilt 

top I1.25 

A new volume by this author is always welcomed. The 
theme of this new work, as treated by Dr. Gordon, is sure to be 
full of deepest interest, 

Ecce Venit; Behold He Cometh. Paper, net, 50c.; 
cloth I1.25 

It is impossible to read this book without being stimulated 
by it and getting higher and fresher views ot some aspects of 
Christianity which are perhaps dwelt on less than they should 

be." — Indepeyident. 

In Christ; or, The Believer's Union With His Lord. 
Seventh Juiiiion. Vnpi^r, net, 35c.; cloth |ioo 

"We do not remember since Thomas a Kcmpis a book so 
thoroughly imbued with a great personal love to Christ. It is 
evidc-ntly ihe happy result of hours of high communion with 

Him.' ' — liostoji L'ou rier. 

The Ministry of Healing; or, Miracles of Cure in 
All Ages. Third Editio7i. Paper, net, 50c.; cloth I1.25 

"An interesting and thoughtful work. Dr. Gordon mar- 
shals together witnesses from all ages and all classes in favor of 
his bcliefthat cures may still be wrought through prayer." — 
Jiritish and Foreign J''.7>angrlical Revieiu. 

The Two-Fold Life; or, Christ's Work for Us, and 

Christ's Work \\\ Ts. Paper, 7iet, 50c.; cloth.. Jr. 25 

"Distinguished by excjuisite purity of thought, by deep 
spiritual insight, and by great strength of practical argument. 
The work is one of great spiritual beauty and helpfulness." — 

J^apiist Magazine. 

Grace and Glory; Sermons for the Life That Now 
Is and That Which Is to Come. Paper, net, 50c.; 
cloth #1.50 

"Here we have power without sensationalism; calm thought, 
living and earnest, expressed in forcible language; the doctrine 
orthodox, evangelical, practical. We shall be surprised if these 
discourses are not reprinted by an J^jiglish house." — C. H. 

Spnrgron. 

The First Thing: in the World; or, The Primacy 

of I'aith. Vellum paper covers % .20 

Cheaper edition, popuhir vellum series 10 

"There was a fear lest the prominence given the exceeding^ 
beauty and umbrageousTiess or"L()ve" should overshadow the 
sister grace of "Faith," but Dr. (iordon has rescued us from the 
daTiger of forgetting that faith in Christ is the foundation of our 
Christian life." — Christian at Work. 

oHicAQo. Fleming H. Revell Company. n«w tork. 



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